No. 513525
>>513496I mean this in a good way - anon originally asked for battle shounen but with female protags but Utena is a shoujo, and a deconstruction of shoujo at that. Your typical battle shounen slop would entail tropes like
>WSJ pillars of friendship, battles and victory>power of friendship saves the day>protag fights progressively stronger opponents to become number one>edgy rival who’s obsessed with battle >power levels, tournaments and all that jazz But Utena is a deconstruction of shoujo tropes, a completely different genre, and the opposite of what that anon asked for
>largely character driven rather than plot driven>deconstruction of fairy tale tropes like the princess/witch dichotomy >duels are not for combat per se, but moreso a vehicle for showing conflicts of ideasTo this day Utena is still one of the most subversive, human and wonderfully surreal pieces of media I’ve ever seen. The setting is built on layers of allegory and symbolism (eg the prince metaphors, the promise to “revolutionize the world”, the magical elements like drawing a sword out of a person) which can be disorienting at first but part of the experience is untangling the layers of symbolism. The characters feel like real figures even if the drama seems very typical for a shoujo (love triangles, boy angst, etc). I recommend every weeb farmer watch Utena as part of their required watching.
No. 513537
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So I finally got around to watching The Elusive Samurai, I know I'm comically late. I don't pay much mind to seasonal animes and just pick out things that look interesting but this means I miss a lot of the discussion with other nonas. Very sad I missed this one. I really enjoyed the show and thought it was quite fun, the humour is a teensy bit cheap at times but I did laugh quite a bit which is rare for me. I got a lot of amusement out of Sadamune's design, there's a lot of room for jokes there. I will say, I went into this completely blind and was surprised at the brutality(?), for lack of a better word. The battle scene showing torn of scalps, teeth, other skin pieces plus the beheading of Tokiyuki's brother (9 years old!) was all quite jarring. I'm not totally opposed to brutal battle scenes being shown since I like a little reality, I just don't think I've ever seen an anime go that far. My favourite character was Fubuki, I like his gentle nature, I don't know many male characters that are as sweet and kind-spirited. Didn't like the gluttony jokes though, it's a bit overdone and not a trope I really enjoy. I like the sword trick he teaches Tokyuki and how it's merciful nature reflects his character, I thought that was a cool touch and I want to see more of that. I don't really read manga but I might pick it up since I am feeling antsy about the story.